More than 850 people packed into the Sydney Town Hall for a “Save Sydney from Over-development” public meeting organised by Friends of Barangaroo on August 3. The meetings was organised to in response to a proposed development of the harbour-side Barangaroo area.
There are serious community concerns about the plan to hand over public space to private developer Lend Lease, which plans to build a large hotel on the land.
The meeting was organised as a debate with seven speakers. Sydney Mayor Clover Moore and Barangaroo Delivery Authority chairperson Mike Collins spoke in favour of the proposed development at Barangaroo. Collins emphasised the potential economic benefits from developing the area to attract financial interests.
Other speakers, including Greens Leichhardt mayor Jamie Parker and Aboriginal elder Shireen Malamoo, opposed the plan and raised serious concerns over its behind-closed-door nature of the plan.
Speakers opposing the development said it would significantly reduce public access to the harbour foreshore. The NSW Labor government was accused of putting developer profits over the interests of the community.
Former NSW Builders’ Labourers’ Federation leader Jack Mundey, who helped organise “green bans” in the 1970s that saved historic sections of Sydney from being destroyed by developers, was unable to speak due to a death in the family. He sent greetings emphasising his opposition to the development plan.
A motion was passed unanimously that called on the NSW Liberal Party to instigate an enquiry into the development proposal and demand no further binding agreements be entered into until its findings are released.
Visit www.friendsofbarangaroo.org for more information.